Day of silence begins in Ukraine ahead of presidential vote

Day of silence begins in Ukraine ahead of presidential vote
# 30 March 2019 11:42 (UTC +04:00)

The seventh presidential campaign in the history of Ukraine came to the end at midnight local time on Friday, ONA reports citing TASS.

After three months of heated electoral struggle, the country’s political life will stand still to give voters an opportunity to make a balanced decision on who will be in charge of Ukraine for the next five years.

Starting from 00:00 on Friday Kiev time, all campaigning was prohibited, and utility service workers began to remove banners and posters from public places.

Ivan Varchenko, an advisor to the country’s interior minister, said that Ukrainian legislation does not view social networks as media, and, therefore, electioneering there is not formally punishable by the law.

However, he warned that the country has no standard court policy regarding such incidents and it would be impossible to predict what stance a judge will take while passing a verdict.

A record number of candidates - 39 people - will take part in Ukraine’s presidential election set for March 31, 2019. The country’s election authority initially registered 44 candidates, but five withdrew in support of other, more promising, candidates.

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THE OPERATION IS BEING PERFORMED